Principal of the Thing
• Principle • PRI • PotT |gender = Male |sprite = Photo-cropped |spawn = Principal's Office |species = Human |job = Principal |location = Here School |likes = Students following the school rules |dislikes = Students breaking the school rules |created = Photo graphing, next cutting and edit in GIMP |added = Baldi's Basics Classic |voice = mystman12 |description = "If I see anyone breaking the school rules, I'll make sure justice is served! It tastes good and fills my tummy!" }} The Principal of the Thing is, hence his name, the principal of Here School in Baldi's Basics. He is one of the most prominent, and most bothersome characters that the Player will encounter. Description The Principal of the Thing is a dithered realistic photo of a lanky adult man with his right hand out pointing upwards. His eyebrows are raised and his mouth is open as if he was shouting. He wears a dark gray sweater-shirt with lighter stripes, pale blue jeans, and brownish-red socks (originally white) without shoes. His legs are slightly glitched/erased, along with part of his left arm. According to mystman12, the Principal of the Thing is, in fact, wearing a yellow bow-tie,"Actually, he's always had a bow-tie, you just can't see it in the game because of how few colors his sprite uses. :P" - File:Fef.jpg but it is extremely hard to see because he uses very few colors to dither the Principal's image, as Principal's skin color is very similar to the color of his bow-tie. It is located on his neck and can more clearly be seen in his merchandise items. Personality Principal of the Thing has a very calm personality, speaking in a monotone voice and barely raises his voice without expressing any other emotions. Like a hall monitor, he is in charge of Here School and will put students in detention upon getting caught breaking any rules "in the halls", even if they are in the cafeteria or classrooms. He is known to be very strict as he sends the Player to detention without warning for a tiny infraction such as running in the halls. Artificial Intelligence General Gameplay The Principal of the Thing seems to be taking the place of what a normal hall monitor would do in a school environment. He will first spawn from the Principal's Office and slides quickly around the school, checking the rooms and occasionally whistling. He will pass by the Player without conflict unless the Player is caught breaking any of the School Rules. The Principal of the Thing moves very fast, so wait until he passes by, and then start running once the Player is out of his vision. If the Player breaks any of the rules where Principal of the Thing can spot the Player, he will chase the Player at a speed that is faster than the Player's running speed until he catches them. Once he has caught up to the player, he will teleport himself and them to the Principal's Office, giving the Player detention for a certain amount of time before leaving. During detention, the Player is unable to leave the room for 15 seconds, and the time they will have to wait will be increased by 5 seconds (15 seconds in the original version) each time they are caught. Any detentions after 60 seconds will last for 99 seconds. There is an item called the Principal's Keys that are found in one of the school's Faculty Rooms that can be used to escape detention. While the Player is in detention, they can right-click on the door to the room with the keys selected, and the door will open. However, the longer the detention time is, the riskier this is to do, as if Principal of the Thing catches the Player outside while detention is still being held, he will send them back to detention with an increased waiting time. Being put into detention attracts Baldi's attention, as it has the same effect as when opening a door, and will cause Baldi to go towards the Player's location if the Player does not use the Alarm Clock or Noise Phone before appearing in detention, or the Baldi Anti Hearing and Disorienting Tape after arriving there. As such, getting caught six or more times (three or more times in the original version) is an almost guaranteed game over without these items or a distraction, as it will take too long for the timer to hit 0 before Baldi enters and catches the Player. The Player can use WD-NoSquee on the Principal's Office door, so Baldi can't hear that the Player is put in detention. This is very useful if the Player has been caught 2 times, as the WD-NoSquee item lasts 4 door openings. However, this will not work if the Principal catches the Player in Baldi's line of sight. The Principal of the Thing can actually help the Player at certain times. If he takes the Player to his office, they can potentially escape from Baldi and use the Baldi Anti Hearing and Disorienting Tape. Principal of the Thing is one of the few characters that can interrupt Playtime's jump rope mini-game, which can sometimes be useful. He also opens doors when entering rooms, allowing the Player to sneak inside without Baldi hearing. Principal of the Thing can send It's a Bully to detention for bullying. This can make him quite helpful on some occasions. There is randomly a window in some of the Faculty Rooms. If the Player sees Principal of the Thing through that window, he will not give the Player detention because he has no eyesight through windows, similar to other characters like Baldi and Gotta Sweep. The BSODA and/or Yellow Door Lock can be used to avoid being put in detention for a short while if needed, but he will chase the Player relentlessly even after losing sight of them. In the full game, he will tend to go places he hasn't been visited, rather than just wandering in completely random places in the original version."Principal of the Thing used to wander around just like everyone else, but now he does so differently. Rather than wandering completely randomly, Principal of the Thing now prefers going to places he hasn't been in a while. This means if you see him pass through a hall, it's likely you won't see him come that way again for a while!" - Kickstarter UPDATE #20: Status Update #8 - Everyone is here! Other Appearances * In Baldi's Basics Classic, the Principal of the Thing wanders randomly around the entire map. His detention time list is shorter, ranging from 15, 30, 45, 60, to 99 seconds. * In the Baldi's Basics: Field Trip demo, the Principal of the Thing plays a very minor role and is one of the four characters who appear and return from the original game. He can only be found past a few black walls in a hallway, where he will say "No breaking the fourth wall in the halls.". However, the Principal of the Thing will not bring the Player to detention and will simply stand there idly. There is no Principal's Office in the school's map for Field Trip Demo, as it has only a few small hallways. * In Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash, he wears a birthday party hat to celebrate the game's 1st anniversary. When appearing with the original cast for a surprise to the Player once reaching the last door in the Cafeteria, he will say "No surprises in the halls." for comical purposes. Trivia ;General * His name is a play on words of the phrase: "It's the principle of the thing." A principle is a fundamental rule, law, or tenet. * Principal of the Thing's whistle is inspired by a scene in the Cartoon Network animation series The Amazing World of Gumball. In the episode "The Banana", a character known as Banana Joe is seen whistling a similar tune. * According to mystman12's live stream, he was unsure where the Principal of the Thing's shirt came from. He went on to mention it was simply a shirt he just happened to have in his possession."I have no idea where the shirt for the Principal came from. Just a shirt I had..." - Livestream archive 1:25:55~1:26:04 ;Baldi's Basics * All other characters have a reason to not get sent to detention for running in the halls: Arts and Crafters, 1st Prize and Gotta Sweep are non-human, Baldi is a teacher and he is not running (he is seemingly teleporting), Playtime is jumping around the halls instead of running, and It's a Bully doesn't move (although he is put into detention solely for blocking the hall). ** Despite this, the Principal of the Thing is clearly running around the school, since he's always faster than the Player's sprinting speed, which is against the rules. Even being faculty, it is unprofessional to break the Player's own rules constantly; even more-so since theoretically running could endanger students. * There is an odd, idiomatic tongue-in-cheek joke for the Principal's office description: While using the "justice is served" phrase (an idiom used to give proper punishment or fair treatment) when catching the students violating any rules, the Principal then states that the served justice tastes good for him like a legitimate food similar to the "dinner is served" idiom. ;Baldi's Basics Classic *As of the V1.3 update, he detects the Player breaking rules in his line of sight, rather than a small radius as in older versions. Also, he wasn't able to send It's a Bully to detention at all, but he could send the Player to detention if he detected the Player used an Energy Flavored Zesty Bar as the "No bullying" rule was the "No eating food" rule instead. * There are unused audio files for the Principal of the Thing that say "No stabbing people with pencils in the halls." and "No looking in other people's lockers in the halls.". ** mystman12 revealed in his gaming live-stream that the "No stabbing people with pencils in the halls." quote was going to be used for when a cut character named "Pencil Boy" stabs the Player."The "stabbing people with pencils in the halls" thing was actually going to do a character I would think I was gonna call him just like "Pencil Boy" or something. ... And basically what I was gonna be was this little kid who would basically come to you and start stabbing with pencils, and if the Principal saw, then he would get rid of him." - Livestream archive 48:31~48:56 ** The "No looking in other people's lockers in the halls." quote was used for an unused concept where the Player was intended to be able to open lockers and find items. mystman12 has revealed that the reason he did not implement this concept is that he thought the idea would be too tedious to pull off. However, the audio file is used when he catches the Player hiding in a locker in the Kickstarter exclusive demo. * Using hacks, if the Player in the starting T-shaped corridor location uses the Yellow Door Lock on all three yellow doors to get the Player themselves trapped while the Principal is running after them for detention, the Principal's speed limit will glitch; moving extremely slow and steady but also rarely moves in normal speed for brief amounts of time, and using the BSODA on him will not push him away normally. This will last until any Yellow Door Lock expires. ;Baldi's Basics: Field Trip * Principal of the Thing's "No breaking the fourth wall in the halls." line from the field trip demo is a pun for going through the final wall, which reads "You'll regret this...". Glitches ;Baldi's Basics Classic * If the Player is already in the Principal's Office and is caught breaking one of the school rules, the Principal of the Thing will overlap the Player until he leaves the office, then send them back with detention. If the Player runs back to the door as soon as they are returned with detention, they can escape through the door before it closes, then run away before the Principal leaves the room to avoid being spotted, effectively escaping detention just like when using the keys. * Before V1.3.2, Principal of the Thing would put the Player in detention if he saw them being pushed by Gotta Sweep or 1st Prize. * Sometimes he will not send It's a Bully to detention even after calling the Bully out for the "No bullying" violations. * If the Player holds shift for less than a half-second with a 1-second delay repeatedly, they can actually run in the halls without the Principal of the Thing catching them. ** If the Player is close enough to the Principal of the Thing, or in a certain angle, he will not put them in detention for breaking any rule. * Although this is only when hacking if the Principal catches the Player running while using noclip, he will take them to detention and then say: "No escaping detention in the halls.", and get frozen in his office. ;Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo * The maximum detention time is 65 seconds. However, the Principal of the Thing says "99 seconds..." instead. * While whistling, the sound overlaps when the Principal calls the Player out over the rule breaks. It was fixed on V1.1. Audio Quotes = ;General ;Public Demo ;Kickstarter Demo ;Field Trip ;Birthday Bash |-|Unused/Removed = |-|Livestream = |-|Miscellaneous = Gallery Image Files = Pri principle-sharedassets3.assets-308.png|The Principal of the Thing's description in his office. Principal-sharedassets2.assets-431.png|The Principal of the Thing's sprite from Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash. Thanks-sharedassets2.assets-384.png|The Principal of the Thing from the Birthday Bash ending screen. |-|Screenshots = ;Baldi's Basics Classic ImGoingToBeOnYouLikeANumeratorOnADenominator.png|Principal from the V1.4 (current) screenshot. No living in the halls.png|Principal from the V1.3 screenshot. BaldisBasicsMobile-Screenshot3.png|Principal of the Thing from the mobile screenshot. BaldisBasicsMobile-Screenshot11.png|Ditto. ;Baldi's Basics Full Game Early Demo Official screenshot 4 - Party in the Principal's Office.png|Principal of the Thing in the Principal's Office during the party. ;Full Game Alpha Alphascreen12-191.png|Principal of the Thing from the Playground. Alphascreen12-196.png|Principal of the Thing from the Library. ;Miscellaneous Development Build 20190618-1.png|The Principal of the Thing from the full game's development screenshot. |-|Merchandise = ;Toys Mini-Figurines.jpg|Principal of the Thing's figurine. Clippers.png|Principal's clip hanger. PrincipalActionFigure-Final.jpg|Principal's action figure. ;Shirts DetentionForYouShirt.jpg|Principal's "DETENTION FOR YOU" T-shirt. NoWearingBaldiShirts.jpg|Principal's "NO WEARING BALDI'S BASICS SHIRTS IN THE HALLS!" T-shirt. NoWearingLimitedBaldiShirts.jpg|Ditto but a limited edition. ;Accessories Buttons1.jpg|Buttons with Principal of the Thing and other characters. Stickers1.jpg|Stickers with Principal of the Thing and other characters and items. ;Prototypes BB0507 Figures 540x.jpg|Principal's collectible figure. BB0503 Figures 540x.jpg|Principal's action figure. BB0506 Figures 540x.jpg|Principal's construction set minifigure. Principal action figure.jpg|Principal's action figure. |-|Miscellaneous = 472e3e17e403ee63fd4347ad0a77b274 original.png|The Principal of the Thing in the Kickstarter heading section. 1d7997099c42e2bde56b9d5972dfcad7 original.png|Principal of the Thing, along with half of the cast, in the "Thank you!" image after the game's Kickstarter page was funded. BaldisBasics-AmazonMerchBanner.jpg|Principal of the Thing from the Amazon merchandise page image. PrincipalOfTheThing-ValentinesCard.jpg|Principal of the Thing from the printable Valentines card. References Navigation ru:Директор (Principal of the Thing) Category:Characters Category:Here School characters